The Remainer tyranny

You couldn’t have asked for a better illustration of the ridiculousness of the radical left. There they were on Whitehall yesterday raging against Boris the ‘dictator’, while at the exact same time the section of the political class that these leftists support – the Remainer elite – was threatening Boris with jail if he doesn’t obey its demands to stay in the European Union. If anything has the whiff of dictatorship in the UK right now, it is this alarmingly authoritarian urge to imprison the prime minister if he refuses to extend the UK’s membership of the EU. Yet Corbynistas and other so-called progressives were on the streets screaming blue murder about Boris’s ‘dictatorship’-style proroguing of parliament while turning a blind eye – or giving a rousing cheer – to the pro-EU elite’s increasingly tyrannical determination to defy the people and keep the UK in the EU for longer.

Yes, we have now reached the ‘keep us in the EU or we will send you to jail’ stage of the Remainer tyranny. This furious, anti-democratic wing of the elite, who make up the majority of the contemporary establishment, has been drifting towards extreme authoritarianism for two years now. They openly discuss overriding the largest democratic vote in British history. They condemn newspapers that use strong language to describe Remainer extremism. They make deals with the European Union above the heads of the prime minister, the Cabinet and the people to ensure that we stay in the EU for longer than planned. And now they warn the PM that if he doesn’t follow a new law insisting on an extension of the Article 50 process – and of the UK’s membership of the EU – then he will go to jail.

The arch anti-democrat Dominic Grieve, one of the Tory MPs who had the whip removed last week after he sided with the Opposition, says the PM will be ‘sent to prison for contempt’ if he refuses to adhere to the Benn Bill going through parliament which demands an extension to the Article 50 process to January next year (and maybe for longer). The former director of public prosecutions, Lord MacDonald, said MPs could take court action against Boris – something MPs are now considering – and that Boris could then ‘find [himself] in prison’ if he defies the court’s decision. Anti-Brexit obsessive Jo Maugham QC says the choice facing the prime minister is this: ‘he’ll either see the extension delivered or he’ll go to prison.’ Maugham says he will ‘compel’ Boris ‘on pain of imprisonment’ to enforce the extension of the Article 50 process.

Think about what is happening here; think about the seriousness of it. These people – Remainer MPs and their cheerleaders in the legal, media and cultural elites – are preventing Boris Johnson from holding a democratic General Election. And they are forcing him, ‘on pain of imprisonment’, to enact something that nobody voted for and which opinion polls show that majorities of people are opposed to: the further delaying of Brexit. And they will not let the masses have any kind of say on any of this until they have secured – on pain of imprisonment – the PM’s surrender to their anti-democratic determination to keep us in the EU for a longer period of time.

You want to see a coup? You want to see dictatorial instincts at play? Look no further than this unprecedented trashing of political convention and democratic sentiment by that section of the political class that is so consumed by contempt for the people and the vote we made in 2016 that they have now taken to threatening jail against a PM who does what we want rather than what they want.

These people are out of control. They are turning the UK into an entirely undemocratic nation. Such is their arrogance, their aloofness from public opinion, their loathing for the millions who voted to leave the EU, that they are willing to destroy democracy itself in the name of thwarting the people. The prison talk that now flows so freely from their mouths – and which is obediently retweeted by the seething classist inhabitants of the FBPE sections of the Twittersphere – is more than a practical threat; it is more than an anally retentive reading of the law. It also shines a light into these people’s hearts and their minds and the tyranny that lurks there. These people really do believe, like jumped-up Joe Stalins, that those who defy their undemocratic diktats ought to be punished severely. Including by imprisonment.

The Remainer elite is holding the country to ransom. It is blocking a democratic election as it conspires with EU officials to force through another delay to Brexit. It is silencing the people as it stitches up our votes and our demands. This is the most anti-democratic moment in the history of the franchise in this country. It is now essential that we stop referring to the 21 ‘Tory rebels’ and other Remainers in parliament and in the media as ‘moderates’. Because there is nothing moderate about trying to overthrow the largest act of democracy this country has ever seen or about threatening with imprisonment a PM who refuses to facilitate this overthrow. That isn’t moderate – it is extremist, reactionary and dangerous. These people must be stopped as a matter of urgency. We need an election so that we can clear out this class of people who hold the rest of us and our democratic rights in such open contempt.

James Knight

Erm, hello?! Anybody home? That is why people voted to leave the EU. Bercow and others want to ensure parliament is permanently degraded.

Some of these remoaners should drown in their own hypocrisy.

Jane 70

9th September 2019 at 9:09 pm

And he got a tad emotional as well. Good riddance!

Linda Payne

9th September 2019 at 3:46 pm

Invoke the treason laws

Somerset Scrumpy

9th September 2019 at 2:38 pm

The Benn Bill is full of holes. Whoever drafted it doesn’t seem to understand the legal difference between “sending… a letter” and delivering a specific and signed document. If Boris complies with the Bill to the letter, it won’t compel him to do anything substantive. I’ve spotted another three massive ambiguities that render it useless. If Dominic Grieve had a hand in drafting this, no wonder he decided against a career in law :0D

Jim Lawrie

9th September 2019 at 2:41 pm

The letter is already drafted, just has to be signed. It will be sent through standard diplomatic channels, so will be delivered. It is not a technical issue.

Somerset Scrumpy

9th September 2019 at 3:54 pm

The Schedule to the Bill contains the wording for the letter but there is nothing in that Bill requiring it to be signed or ‘delivered’, merely ‘sent’. This is a huge flaw. Yes you are right that following convention such a document would ordinarily be delivered through diplomatic channels. Taken to extremes, the Bill requires Boris to do nothing more than put the unsigned Schedule in an envelope marked for the attention of the President of the European Council (without an address!), and stick it in the post without a stamp. It depends whether Boris is prepared to go absolutely no further than the Bill requires. But there are other ambiguities in the Bill too that renders it ineffectual.

Jane 70

9th September 2019 at 1:37 pm

“I am assured that if it be rightly searched into, the inward bondages of the minde, as covetousness, pride, hypocrisie, envy, sorrow, fears, desperation, and madness are all occasioned by the outward bondage that one sort of people lay upon another.”

Gerrard Winstanley The New Law of Righteousness, 1649

A wise voice from the 17th century: wisdom for our time. Remainers-nota bene.

Geoff Cox

9th September 2019 at 1:03 pm

Given where Labour is now, it is ironic that had Corbyn simply said 4 years ago “The Labour Party does not have a position on Brexit. It is up to each individual to campaign for or against leaving the EU. I will be supporting Leaving the EU”.

We don’t know for sure how that would have played out, but at least people would have credited him with some guts and integrity. It is also extrememly likely that we would be out of the EU now with a good deal … and Labour may well be flying!

H McLean

10th September 2019 at 2:40 am

The problem with that is it would require a commitment and adherence to principles and as we know when it comes to the left, principles come and go depending on the individual and the situation faced. They’re not called the regressive left for nothing.

nick hunt

9th September 2019 at 12:14 pm

Thanks to Brendan again, even more on top of his game than before. Few commentators see and express things so clearly and concisely, with James Dellingpole at Breitbart London being one of them.

Somerset Scrumpy

9th September 2019 at 2:40 pm

Hear, hear.

Amelia Cantor

9th September 2019 at 10:48 am

The Remainer elites are a menace to democracy and freedom. They must be defeated.

Once again with the “must”. Nope, rightards (and Trots). Most of us learn by the age of two that you can’t get everything you want by issuing orders to reality. But rightards and reality (as I’ve noted before) are not even on nodding acquaintance.

We members of the Remain Community are not counting our chickens, but it looks very much as though Brexit is dying nearly as fast as the whites who voted for it. And don’t tell Spiked, anyone, but if we get open borders under Jeremy or a migrant amnesty under the Bullingdon Buffoon, Brexit will die even faster:

The discussion in Britain has mostly missed out one of the biggest divides that the vote uncovered: 53% of White voters wanted out and 73% of Black voters wanted to stay in the EU. Black voters overwhelmingly supported staying in, not because of any love for the union but because they recognized that the driving force behind the desire to leave was racism.

Neil McCaughan

What community? Some swivel-eyes staggering around like drunks, braying their commitment to German Imperial rule and hatred of democracy?

Andrew Leonard

11th September 2019 at 12:15 am

Amelia darling,
any chance we could discuss this topic more, over coffee and sandwiches at Pret?
I’m sure we won’t be bothered by any of those horrible white people. Pret only employs the wonderful black and brown people, you know, the ones who don’t have a racist or hateful bone in their bodies, and conveniently work for the minimum wage.
Don’t worry, you won’t even have to acknowledge any of these multicultural wonders – I will handle the ordering and do the tipping, and then make sure they leave the table quickly.
Saturday morning darlings?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQAdkYmPycM

Yvonne Charsley

9th September 2019 at 10:32 am

Got this today…is it correct?

The latest UK You Gov poll has Labour dropping 4% to 21%. An election held on these results in predicted to be:

Jerry Owen

9th September 2019 at 11:45 am

Unfortunately the ‘ groundswell ‘ is for a party committed to remaining in the EU !

Willie Penwright

9th September 2019 at 9:38 am

If you voted to leave the EU, your vote doesn’t count as it wasn’t explained to you in detail the economics of what the future could hold.
If you voted for a Conservative MP, your vote DOES count when that MP decides to change his/her position and party and become a Lib Dem MP.

Francis Lee

9th September 2019 at 9:06 am

What amuses me about the Remainers is their absolute economic illiteracy. Europe is portrayed as some dynamic, progressive engine delivering growth, output and full employment …. and so on and so forth. The UK, however, being the UK, is fuddy-duddy and in the midst of a political and economic crisis. Well lets have a look at some of the figures. (I’ll try to keep it simple for our Remainer friends)

First of all government (sovereign) debt-to-GDP ratios. (Taking the big four)

Germany – 6!%
The UK – 87%
France – 98%
Italy 132%

Annual growth rates
Germany 0.4%
UK 1.2%
France 1.4%
Italy -0.1%

These really are depression figures and the signs are that things will only deteriorate further. From an economic perspective the EU is a disaster area and given ECB policies this is hardly surprisng. Yet the Remainers soldier on, oblivious to what is happening and cocooned in their own self-righteousness. Stupidity doesn’t even begin to described it. Remainerism has become a sort of religious cult, with its own priesthood and postulates with Brussels being the EU’s Mecca.

ZENOBIA PALMYRA

9th September 2019 at 3:15 pm

Yes, but if the EU goes down, the UK goes down with it.

Neil McCaughan

9th September 2019 at 6:02 pm

Why would it do that?

The overwhelming bulk of our trade is with the rest of the world. We import from the EU, and when they are in serious trouble they will be ever more grateful to sell to us.

Like other remoaners, your statements have no basis in fact, but depend heavily on an emotional, some would say hysterical, reaction to issues you do not understand.

Andrew Needham

9th September 2019 at 8:54 am

I feel that if Boris has found a loophole in the amended bill, then use it. I know most of my friends voted remain, but they just want us to leave, because they are sick to death of it. I ask all remainers to tell me this, if you had won, would we be having Brexiteers marking on Westminster or Downing street. No, because they would’ve been democratic about it. I think Winston Churchill would be rolling in his grave after his grandson voted against democracy, which faught so hard to keep for the British people.

Jane 70

9th September 2019 at 9:01 am

Quite agree : my Remain supporting friends are sick of this awful farce and want an end to it.
And, as you rightly say, if they had won, none of this would have happened. Who are the true democrats? We are.
Many are the occasions on which I’ve explained the legitimacy of the referendum result, and now a grudging or at least, resigned acceptance, is gaining ground.

Somerset Scrumpy

9th September 2019 at 2:45 pm

There are a number of flaws in the Bill as drafted. The gloves seem to be off now, so if Boris does precisely what the Benn Bill requires and nothing further (i.e. following only the “letter of the law”) we’ll be out by the end of October. What is frightening is that presumably the people who drafted this worthless Bill also see themselves as leading alternative negotiations with the EU. These buffoons would have rings run around them in that situation!

Jane 70

9th September 2019 at 8:12 am

No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land.

Magna Carta-see above : surely Boris could invoke this, together with some pertinent and incisive advice from the legal eagles at Lawyers for Britain.

Just a thought.

Michael Lynch

9th September 2019 at 12:29 pm

I think Boris has the loopholes nailed. I don’t fully understand the details, but from what I’ve read it looks as if the rebel alliance have rushed the bill and left it open to legal challenge. This a ‘gloves off’ fight now and it’s going to get even more brutal. The more I think of it the more I’m convinced that the Labour hysteria is a sure sign of a party in its death throes. Look how many are jumping ship, or resigning, most are old school and very experienced politicians. The likes of Mann and Hoey don’t want their legacies tainted so they’re getting out in time. Corbyn looks as if he’s going to be leader that has finally brought down Labour and, ironically, with the willing help of the Blairites. The Liberals smell blood and victory here and they’ll do everything to pick up votes from wherever they can and that includes Labour.
I agree about what you say about your Remainer friends getting fed up. The ridiculous stance taken by Thornberry with her proposed negotiation tactic, interestingly mirrored by John McDonell on the Marr show, has only brought further incredulity from the public on both sides of the argument. What’s even more damaging is their authoritarian stance. It’s obvious to anyone who cares to look now and that’s exactly what Cummings wanted from the proroguation tactic. He shook the box and all the Remainers fell out for all to see. Very interesting times.

Jane 70

9th September 2019 at 12:52 pm

Quite agree,and what a sad reflection on our present parliamentary shenanigans that the few MPs whose integrity I truly admire_Kate Hoey, Frank Field, John Mann are leaving.

Secondly, on the FT’s rather bizarre editorial supporting a future Corbyn administration-perish the thought- a close contact in the Square Mile opined that it was and is, nonsense.

More spin from the Remain media.

Michael Lynch

9th September 2019 at 1:18 am

I’m watching the rerun of Question Time just now and the responses from Thornberry, Blackford and the Lib Dem representative are disgraceful. I’d swear from the way Blackford is suckering up to Thornberry it looks as if Labour and the SNP have done a secret deal on a Indyref 2 to secure their alliance. This so called rebel alliance are trying to make out that they the saviors of democracy and yet will not commit to giving a date for a GE! They are loosing credibility by the second and I don’t think most of us out her in the real world doubt that Labour is going to be obliterated when we get our chance to vote. The duplicity, hypocrisy and arrogance of these frauds is truly staggering to witness.

Jim Lawrie

9th September 2019 at 1:56 am

The SNP believe what they hear from their hangers on in Edinburgh, who tell them what they think they want to hear. Hence their belief that Nicola Sturgeon is their biggest asset.

The divisions in Scotland after Indyref were deep and sore. But the result was accepted and we moved on.
I voted for independence but parted company with fellow YES voters because I immediately accepted the result, and was too stupid to see how stupid and gullible were the NO voters.
To listen to much of the argument from The SNP now you’d think that the English had just recently crashed their country’s mass into ours to create a land border just to annoy us.

Michael Lynch

9th September 2019 at 2:45 am

I may have been born and raised in Britain but am an Irish Nationalist at heart. Simply because I’m much closer to my Irish roots and heritage. However, I must stress, that as a Christian, I could never condone murder or violence to achieve that aim. What surprises me so much about some Irish Nationalists is how ready they are to cosy up to the European dream. It’s almost as if some of them are blinded by a deep hatred for the old enemy! However, I know in my heart that if the Brexit vote is disavowed in Britain then democracy is finally crushed in Europe. That can only mean we are all on the road to a Federalism and an end to Nationalism. Given that it took us 75O years to achieve the right to self determination, and the possibility of a United Ireland further down the road, I find this attitude incredibly short sited and worrying. What really concerns me about their attitude, is that they are unable to accept that there can be no such thing as a Liberal dictatorship. We cannot live in free societies without consensus. We obviously understand the value of a European Economic Union, but not one that is ruled by an uncheckable politburo. This can only lead to abuse of power; even the most casual student of history is aware of this. I’m truly stumped by all of this and can see no way out of the nightmare given that these arrogant fools in Parliament are hell bent on capitulation. Sorry if I’m rambling, but I’m tired and have got a nasty head cold!

Jane 70

9th September 2019 at 5:51 am

Having tried to be level headed and reluctant to resort to hyperbole, I’m now convinced that we are in danger of becoming a de facto liberal dictatorship: I used this phrase for the first time here on Spiked last week but wondered if it were truly appropriate.

Attempts to move to imprison PM Johnson now openly supported ; Hammond threatening to sue following his loss of the party whip: this is one giant establishment hissy fit, and it grows more ridiculous yet more sinister with each day that passes.

“I am assured that if it be rightly searched into, the inward bondages of the minde, as covetousness, pride, hypocrisie, envy, sorrow, fears, desperation, and madness are all occasioned by the outward bondage that one sort of people lay upon another.”

Gerrard Winstanley The New Law of Righteousness, 1649

Apt words from Winstanley for the Reamainers.

Jane Carter

9th September 2019 at 9:38 am

If I heard correctly, Emily Thornberry said they wouldn’t vote for an Oct 15th election because Boris Johnson could change the date. When asked what he might change it to she said maybe November 1st? But isn’t that a date they would actually want: a date after the leaving date?

Alan Watson

8th September 2019 at 11:19 pm

Great comment Mr O’Neill.

Diogenes Downunder

8th September 2019 at 10:37 pm

Being Australian I have no dog in this fight …

Boris can both follow the letter of the law and achieve what he wants. He is directed to write a letter seeking an extension , and the wording is given, however he is not directed as to HOW it is to be transmitted. He writes the letter, and has it hand delivered to Juncker, only his courier(s) WALKS (and ferries) from London to Brussels via Dieppe , then Vienna, then Berlin, Hamburg to Brussels. Say they do 30 km a day that should just about count down the clock to 0 by the time parliament prorogues. Alternately he could send it via ordinary mail (ie NOT airmail or diplomatic courier ) to say the British High Commission in Australia to pass on to the EU delegate to Australia to pass back to Brussels. Given it takes 6 weeks for ordinary mail, and Australia Post will require at least another week to get to the BHC and then another to the EDA , Brexit will have happened.

steve moxon

8th September 2019 at 9:59 pm

The legal shenannigans is empty in an unwritten constitution. As Dominic C points out, Boris can just ignore it, and sit on his hands until Halloween.
The Remoaners are rabid because they know that however this plays out they’ve lost, so as usual they just continue the elitist-separatist virtue-signalling entrenchment.
They’d lose even if they could stop a Halloween exit, in that they can’t stop Brexit in the end, because they’re compounding their loss of political capital with every move, fueling the demand for Brexit which is still growing, not going away, because of the extreme insult to basic democracy. And nor anyway can they stop the forthcoming implosion of the EU — we can’t be in something that no longer exists.

A Game

8th September 2019 at 9:33 pm

Let’s hope this comment survives moderation.

Really nice pin on the ante being upped by the freedom lovers. You do a really good job of showing the ever growing chasm between how they see themselves and how they present. They really think they are showing might, and power and intellect… but all we are seeing is a defragmentation. Right before our eyes.

You wonder what these people actually think they are fighting and what its for.

I’ve come to the conclusion that, for some, from the immediate result of the referendum, but in three years, for the rest, its just hardened into the rage and bitterness of being defeated/thwarted – still no second referendum, they’d hoped May’s falling off the perch heralded something good for them, but the arrival of Big House bound Boris and his appeal to the electorate (and their tactics slowly working against them all the time, Gina’s dropped the ball, the tory rejects aren’t resonating like they’d hoped, Moggy’s evolving into some kind of rockstar (their side hasn’t delivered much on the performance front) the new cabinet isn’t blinking and are coming across as determined as hell, even as Boris wilts a little more every time we see him (which pulls at the heartstrings), the poll results coming in… and this is with every single advantage imagineable.

I think this has long been about just winning. For winnings sake. They lost. They think they are life’s winners (with the advantages most of them were born with, not really… in fact, most of them haven’t done much at all with their privilege, they aren’t brilliant at anything, they just exist inside their self-created class of self proclaimed specialness) and its outrageous that the plebs got them.
Your article really captures the sense of the hysteria being notched up, bit by bit, loss by loss, frustration by frustration, even knowing their dominance of twitter means nothing – they are so boring, who bothers? Smug, ad hominem one-liners, over and over, which hasn’t gotten them anywhere in three years, just revealed how vicious the modern day saints are.

You feel that they are, to compensate for the reality always nipping at the edges of their mind, that they are wrong, that they will lose, so the hatred, resentment and entitlement is churning within them.
And all just to finally win. To triumph over the proletariat. I think the spoils of victory isn’t staying in the EU, I think its the victory itself. Which is possibly more dangerous than anything.

And so with zero self awareness, onwards they hurtle, using EU Nationalism as the excuse. But really, its just about it being time the natural born winners won. Because that’s their due.

All western democracies that have let this ilk rule their cultural roosts for the last 20 years, been indulgent to a fault of their social diktats, the identitarianism, the social engineering, the reverse racism, the repeal of civil liberties, the politicisation and thus, erosion of justice and law, the money, the money that gets poured into their vanity projects with nothing to ever show for it at the end… Well done, Great Britain. Your support of the 2016 referendum, whilst completely inadvertently, has shown how deep the rot of their ideas have set in. Their own behaviour has revealed how twisted this class has become.

They are doing everything Brendan has listed. They are the tyrants. They are the fascists. They are the racists, the bigots – trying to “no platform” Sajid Javid in his budget, anytime he referenced his background, booing, jeering – the unenlightened.

All of the threats to Boris… they’re like verbal nanchuks being flicked around in someone’s face… the threat, the intimidation, the display of power.
Their hunger to oppress. Their hunger to be the oppressor.

And I’m not sure that what they have shown the world, was by accident. They want us to be afraid of them.
And this is what is being whipped up into an ever more frenzied state.

John Henry

8th September 2019 at 10:10 pm

Game – This is one of the best comments I’ve read anywhere, and to my mind perfectly sums up what we’re dealing with now. Brendan O’Neill’s article highlights all the double-think and hypocrisy that we’re currently going through.

I was in the Royal Navy for some 24 years, and have been on active service to war zones such as Former Yugoslavia. The fanatical remainers (most people I personally know who voted remain, pragmatically respect the referendum result, hence the qualifier). As for doom mongering, even if true we survived far worse during the two world wars. And I’ve seen for myself what a real crisis country looks like. Is their argument that the UK cannot survived without being partially ruled by the EU? If so how do the majority of countries outside the EU survive? No we’ll be fine and at least in control of our own future destiny. And that probably is the biggest fear of the fanatical remainers, that leaving the EU ends up for the UK the damp squid that the Millennium Bug was, with next to no chance of the public voting to re-join.

As a businessman I have been on the receiving end of the EU’s cookies, digital products, and GDPR diktats – all adversely affecting me and many others – without mandate and the ability to vote them out.

The old chestnut about the £350M figure on the bus, this was the gross figure of contribution – perhaps fanatical remainers would care to cite their NET salary on future applications. The figure is wrong of course, as doesn’t include the percentage of our VAT we give to the EU, 95% of the tariffs collected from trade outside EU (Bananas, New Zealand Lamb, Chinese goods etc.), and a whopping big trade deficit.

However, going back to military tactics. The enemies of democracy have now been flushed out, many who lied about their commitment to the referendum result are now fully exposed, and at some point the public will deal with them at the ballot box. I believe the anti democracy rabble of parliament have overreached themselves and letting their guard down, in what may end up as a Pyrrhic victory, and will more than likely precipitate a no deal WTO Brexit in the end game.

Jane 70

9th September 2019 at 7:59 am

Splendid and yes, it’s their supremely conceited sense of hitherto unchallenged entitlement which drives them.
What we now see is mass hysteria, all directed at us, the Leave voters. Shameful.

Brandy Cluster

8th September 2019 at 9:31 pm

My admiration for Brendan O’Neill grows by the hour. “Keep up your bright sword or the dew will rust it”.

James Charnley

8th September 2019 at 9:16 pm

According to the BBC and other reliable sources 30 million people voted during the EU referendum. The figure given for those who voted Leave is 17.4 million, again according to the same sources. This means only 12.6 million people voted to Remain! (30 – 17.4) When presented like this the difference between the two options seems huge. How has it been possible for this decisive democratic result to be overruled?

Christopher Tyson

8th September 2019 at 9:05 pm

The story so far, as I understand it, is that previous PM Theresa May made a deal with the EU, she tried three times to pass this deal through parliament and it was rejected. The EU say there will be no more deals or amendment ‘take it or leave it’. The well used definition of insanity is to attempt the say thing over and over again expecting a different outcome, May was removed from her job of PM for the sake of protecting herself and others. It is now expected of Johnson that he produce a result from a negotiation with other parties, like a gladiator I suppose, kill or be killed. If the EU does not offer a new deal, as they just keep on saying, Johnson will have to accept the deal that has already been rejected by parliament. Johnson has the choice of not accepting the deal and going to prison, or being forced by parliament to accept a deal that they themselves have already rejected three times.

Brian Perkins

8th September 2019 at 8:32 pm

Its becoming boring now, listening to you and your fixation on “delivering Brexit.” There is no Brexit, if there was, youd have had it by now. Scoundrels like Johnson, promised it would be so easy to deliver Brexit, while campaigning. It was all lies. Everyone who was remainer had accepted Brexit and waited for it to be delivered. But nobody has yet done that in almost 3 years. Its just chaos

Jerry Owen

8th September 2019 at 8:48 pm

Brian Perkins
When you reach maturity come back and have another go.

Peter Wibberley

9th September 2019 at 8:19 am

Your definition of “maturity” being holding the same view as you

Jerry Owen

9th September 2019 at 9:07 am

Peter wibberley
Brexit is easy the remainers are the mess.
Not hard to understand is it … After three years.

Michael Lynch

8th September 2019 at 6:58 pm

Every eligible voter in GB now needs to seriously assess what value they place on their right to a voice via the ballot box. What is it really worth to them? Unfortunately, the younger generations don’t seem to care about democracy. The elitist establishment and their middle class stooges seem to even despise it. Falling over themselves to give it away because they believe that Brussels is somehow building a better world for everyone. I’ve no doubt that there is good intention behind their viewpoint, but then the road to hell is always paved with good intentions. Progressive, liberal societies are what every fair minded person wants to live in, but ideology cannot be forced upon people without their consent. The second you rob people of their right to speak and vote then you become no better than any of the authoritarians and dictators that have gone before.

A Game

8th September 2019 at 8:28 pm

More like that old chestnut: the end justifies the means. And when you are as good and wholesome and moral as these people… why not?

Ironically, of course, what will be the most dangerous place to be come whichever election gets up first? The space between them and a ballot box. They will be voting and voting and voting their little hearts out, the true believers that their vote will matter.

Stuck on the merry-go-round of their hypocrisy.

I watched Game of Thrones. Apparently an awful lot of the Remainers did, too. So normal people all saw Danyrus (however its spelt) being a classic example of when zealotry, pumped up by righteousness, becomes a dangerous, insane odyssey, completely defeating the original idea/purpose of why one bothered turning up in the first place.

I think Remainers thought they were watching a how-to guide, you know, Tyranny for Dummies, with a titillating porny twist. You know, they got kind of high.

ZENOBIA PALMYRA

8th September 2019 at 6:57 pm

I thought this website was designed to promote freedom of speech. Increasingly, it is just pro-Brexit propaganda (like the Daily Telegraph). Spiked and the DT appear to have abandoned all pretence of objectivity.

terence patrick hewett

8th September 2019 at 6:26 pm

Much of English social history may be looked upon as the attempt to wrest back the freedoms of a pre-1066 England – the England invented and forged by Alfred in the face of the Norse and the Dane – an astonishing comeback from an England which at one stage consisted of a few acres of Somerset marsh. And because this is England we are talking about – much of it is of course about snobbery of one sort or another – amusing as that is.

George Orwell noted the phenomenon in his essay The Lion and the Unicorn:

‘….the English intelligentsia are Europeanized. They take their cookery from Paris and their opinions from Moscow. In the general patriotism of the country they form a sort of island of dissident thought. England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality. In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution, from horse racing to suet puddings. It is a strange fact, but it is unquestionably true that almost any English intellectual would feel more ashamed of standing to attention during ‘God save the King’ than of stealing from a poor box…’

It has been amusingly said that the English don’t even know their own history let alone anybody else’s: but a surprising number do – even if many only have the understanding outlined by Sellar and Yeatman in their book “1066 and All That: A Memorable History of England, comprising all the parts you can remember, including 103 Good Things, 5 Bad Kings and 2 Genuine Dates.” But they have a very good idea of whose side they are on and what is in their own self-interest.

Ned Crabb

8th September 2019 at 5:34 pm

Brexit will miraculously happen when the US imposes equal tariffs on all EU goods.
It’s the only way to tame the elitist twats in Brussels.

Winston Stanley

8th September 2019 at 5:13 pm

Well said, B. Bang on the money.

The anti-democratic Remoaners are trashing this “democracy”. Openly anti-democratic forces like AQ/ IS must be wetting themselves laughing at the mockery that the establishment in Britain is making of democracy. And there the UK establishment was, fighting military interventions in Syria and Libya on the pretext of a lack of democracy. And they turn around and do this. What a joke. Clearly they do not care about democracy at all. Pretence and pretext. At least one can see some pragmatic concern in Syria/ Libya, oil and money. But the EU is just meaningless, they simply hate the franchise and all that it stands for. The Remoaners are simply waging war on democracy for its own sake. Bedfellows with AQ/ IS. At least those have some further underlying belief, but this lot? Their only belief or purpose is to maintain their own prerogatives over the demos. In that sense they are worse than IS.

Michael Lynch

8th September 2019 at 7:41 pm

They may think they have the upper hand for now, but they’ll pay for their arrogance. Labour will be split in half by this and will never be a powerful political force again. Hammond, Grieve and the rest of the Tory backstabbers will never be forgiven by the wider membership. They know it, that’s why they are all avoiding a GE. They can delay the election as much as they like, but they are only delaying the inevitable. The anger from ordinary voters is so palpable you can almost taste it.

Puddy Cat

8th September 2019 at 3:43 pm

The whole thing looks like a rerun of the Civil War but who is the Crown and who are the people in this imbroglio is not clear. A desire to throw a moribund Parliament onto the streets looks like Cromwell. The God given right to rule looks like Remain. What we can be definite about is that this current turmoil has been long due and, apart from the internecine aspect, the wars have been very instructive and given a clear indication of who rules this country but why they should not; has shown that politics is a dirty business where a lame Parliament, one which, in Parliamentary terms has lost confidence and would, normally, have a demand to terminate, is being kept alive by the electoral fears of the opposition. Too much politics and not enough government. A defining issue which our Parliamentary system has been limping along with for too long, and they accuse Boris of extraordinary measures!

Jane Carter

8th September 2019 at 3:48 pm

Puddy Cat, you sum it up nicely with ‘too much politics and not enough government’.

Stuart Mack

8th September 2019 at 4:23 pm

It is interesting to note that Cromwell and Ireton (General in civil war) didn’t believe in giving the vote to all. They clearly believed, as many remainers do, that the hoardes could not be controlled or trusted with the vote.

Winston Stanley

8th September 2019 at 5:16 pm

Correct, we are in the Leveller and Chartist tradition of universal franchise. Not so much Cromwell.

Jane Carter

8th September 2019 at 2:22 pm

“Anti-Brexit obsessive Jo Maugham QC says the choice facing the prime minister is this: ‘he’ll either see the extension delivered or he’ll go to prison”

Not according to latest comments coming out of number 10. They say the PM will not ask for an extension and he will obey the law. I can see a legal loophole appearing before too long. Maybe Keir Starmer hasn’t made it as water tight as he thought he had.

Geoff Byron

8th September 2019 at 4:06 pm

Just read the extension bill as presented by Robert Craig London School of Economics on Brexit Blog. He has highlighted a couple of points due to the wording of the bill that may also account for the fast passing of said bill through the House of Lords with no Brexit amendments being tabled. He explains why the existence of Queen’s Consent means that they face a complex legal Catch-22 in their efforts to stop the Prime Minister. If this is the case a lengthy legal debate could delay seeking an extension thus would likely lead to an Oct 31st clean break on WTO terms.

Winston Stanley

8th September 2019 at 5:27 pm

Boris should definitely go to prison if it comes to that. Headlines of “BREXIT IN JAIL” and “BANANA REPUBLIC” would be a fantastic summation of the situation.

Michael Lynch

8th September 2019 at 8:57 pm

Thanks for that. I read the blog but I’m afraid it was beyond me! It’s such a complex legal argument and it might be that Benn has rushed this without thinking through all of the scenarios. Let’s hope Boris has something up his sleeve.

Jane Carter

8th September 2019 at 11:21 pm

Thanks. Yes this is indeed very complicated!
I gather Benn, Johnson & Bercow may have made a mistake over the Queen’s Consent / Prerogative Powers, so a legal challenge might be on the way, is that right?

Jerry Owen

8th September 2019 at 2:06 pm

I remember just after the referendum Juncker and the EU telling us they wanted us to leave ‘as soon as possible’. Now three years later it is .. ‘we want you to stay upon pain of imprisoning your Prime Minister’.
Perhaps those remoaner die hards here could explain the reason for the complete reversal of what the EU originally asked us to do ?

michael mccarthy

8th September 2019 at 7:46 pm

It is not at all surprising that after 40+ years of EU membership our parliamentarians have turned into EU fonctionnaires. The one who has been in parliament the longest (good old Ken Clark) is the most EU of the lot. He sees himself as an EU commissioner of some sort, bustling over to Brussels (unrequested) to have ‘discussions’. So the eurosceptics were right all along. We have given away our national sovereignty. And now they don’t want an election. Presumably, with the fixed term parliament thing, they can stay there for another 3 years lording it over the plebs and perhaps arranging, with the complicity of the media and the use of the postal vote, to abolish elections altogether. Or maybe, if they don’t like the result of a general election, well we can just do it again and again until WE GET IT RIGHT.

ZENOBIA PALMYRA

8th September 2019 at 2:02 pm

Why should an advisory, non-binding referendum overthrow the will of Parliament? After all, it’s not like 52-48 is an overwhelming mandate for epochal constitutional change. The only positive I can see from Brexit is that at least Brexiteers will be free to fly their Spitfires over the White Cliffs of Dover!

Jerry Owen

8th September 2019 at 2:08 pm

Z Palmyra
Answer my question above. And also my repeated question to you which you refuse to answer.. how would you reform the EU as you keep stating ?

ZENOBIA PALMYRA

8th September 2019 at 7:04 pm

Make the European Parliament sovereign!

Jerry Owen

8th September 2019 at 8:53 pm

Z Palmyra
Make the EU sovereign… Please expand !

Victoria Thomas

8th September 2019 at 5:35 pm

If the referendum had been ‘advisory’ then what have the last three years been about ? Yours is a typical Remainer response, can’t get your own way so denounce it. If the referendum had been purely advisory, the powers that be would have simply ignored it, so how do you explain the fact that they didn’t ?

ZENOBIA PALMYRA

8th September 2019 at 7:02 pm

‘typical remainer’ lol

Neil McCaughan

8th September 2019 at 6:11 pm

It wasn’t advisory. You just made that up.

ZENOBIA PALMYRA

8th September 2019 at 7:03 pm

Oh yes it was!

Jerry Owen

8th September 2019 at 8:56 pm

You are out of your depth here.

Jerry Owen

8th September 2019 at 1:44 pm

Revolutionary times ahead … But not for the left ironically. Just ordinary folk.
Corbyn and his cohorts will be jealous.
Great article .. on the money as ever.

Michael Lynch

8th September 2019 at 8:02 pm

Spot on, Jerry. Corbyn’s legacy will be the destruction of Labour Party. Ironically, with the willing help of the Blairites. The ordinary, working people of Britain are about to teach the old Marxist what Marxism is really about.

Jim Lawrie

8th September 2019 at 1:15 pm

I said the other day that with no deal outlawed, the next step would be to make disagreeing with that a crime. You have to hand it to them though. No messing around. Straight for the top man. Sets an example.

ZENOBIA PALMYRA

8th September 2019 at 2:08 pm

Agreeing with no deal shouldn’t be a crime, it is merely reckless, economically illiterate and a form of boneheaded nationalist stupidity.

Stuart Mack

Neil McCaughan

We don’t need your approval, or that of other remaintards. Try to focus on the fact that you lost the argument, and have the humility to understand the reasons why.

Jerry Owen

8th September 2019 at 2:16 pm

Jim Lawrie
If they imprison Boris and the Tories elect another ‘ leaver ‘ what then ?
Do they imprison them too ?
Absolutely incredible times .
I always believed that if labour ever got elected we would never have another GE. They may well have been beaten to it by the remainers !

Jim Lawrie

8th September 2019 at 2:52 pm

Given that they are making it up on the hoof, they might strip him of office, then put him in the pokey. That way they haven’t interned The Prime Minister. All via a vote in Parliament, which now seems to be the supreme instrument of Government.

Jim Lawrie

8th September 2019 at 1:07 pm

Emboldened by their in house machinations, they now want to kowtow anyone they consider an enemy. Then rub their noses in it.

What are the charges against Boris? That he disagreed with them? Will the Jo Maughams and Aidan O’Neills of this world step up to the plate and volunteer for the role of Special Prosecutor? Just this once? Pro bono? Or is a trial necessary? Certainly Mr Maugham thinks not.

Jailing Boris, sine die, without trial, might ordinarily be a breach of his human rights. However, suspending that legislation should be a breeze for these legal titans. All in the national interest, of course.

Unkind of the lawyers to have cut out the middleman, leaving the poor old judiciary on the outside looking in. Honest brokers that they are.

I think the real aim is to force Boris to resign, so they can elect their own, in-house, Prime Minister, who will go to Europe and come back, waving to us a ten year special extension. Rejoice.

The positive is that the cosy cartel of courts and counsel has been exposed for what it is. A law unto itself.
Are there no lawyers brave enough to oppose them?

John Rutherford

8th September 2019 at 5:28 pm

You can be sent to prison by a judge without a trial if the offence is contempt of court. Just look what they did to Tommy @ Leeds. When they try to arrest Boris that will be a historical event equivalent to Charles 1st trying to arrest the leading Parliamentarians by armed force leading to the civil war

Jim Lawrie

8th September 2019 at 10:20 pm

The Prime Minister is under starters orders. The Act is moot on what happens if he fails to trap. Presumably Maugham QC will summons The PM to a court and tell that court to find him in contempt of something, and send him down. Perhaps they will then appoint a new Prime Minister. As you suggest the sight of Boris being dragged from from Parliament will be quite moving. I can’t see Bercow do anything but welcome The Officers of the Court.
Maybe Boris could take refuge in The American Embassy.

What I find noteworthy is that it is directed specifically at the Prime Minister.

He must sign and send the following letter by Oct 19.

“Dear Mr President,

The UK Parliament has passed the European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 2) Act
2019. Its provisions now require Her Majesty’s Government to seek an extension
of the period provided under Article 50(3) of the Treaty on European Union,
including as applied by Article 106a of the Euratom Treaty, currently due to
expire at 11.00pm GMT on 31 October 2019, until 11.00pm GMT on 31 January
2020.
I am writing therefore to inform the European Council that the United Kingdom
is seeking a further extension to the period provided under Article 50(3) of the
Treaty on European Union, including as applied by Article 106a of the Euratom
Treaty. The United Kingdom proposes that this period should end at 11.00pm
GMT on 31 January 2020. If the parties are able to ratify before this date, the
Government proposes that the period should be terminated early.

Yours sincerely,

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”

In Negative

8th September 2019 at 12:44 pm

Super stringent moderation here. Bit odd.

In Negative

8th September 2019 at 12:47 pm

Is a delay until Jan really a good justification for a Prime Minister to break the law? Am I missing something?

Jim Lawrie

8th September 2019 at 3:01 pm

What law is being broken?

In Negative

8th September 2019 at 12:43 pm

Someone might need to clear up my confusion here.

What the parliament has done is pretty dispicable. I agree with that, however for Boris to break the law, this law would have to be pretty serious. A delay until January does not seem serious enough to warrent a Prime Minister breaking the law to me. It feels more like he’s been politically outmanoeuvred. Is it that we fear the extension will be a lot longer than January?

A GE could be called in Nov, the law repealed and we could leave in Jan. Am I missing something?

In Negative

8th September 2019 at 12:36 pm

Someone might need to help me out here as I’m a bit confused.

So I’m with you in a lot of this. Our parliament are a right shower. No argument from me there and what they have done is pretty dispicable. With you in all of that. The right thing to do was to hold a GE to get approval for the parliamentary bill the moment it became law. I agree.

My confusion comes with the approval of Boris ignoring a parliamentary law. Is the problem that the delay forced on him may be longer than January? That there will be a short delay does not seem to me to be a huge issue – it may even be helpful.

Furthermore, I think Boris is rightly bound to obey the law. In this sense, Boris appears to me to have been politically outmanoeuvred and it is right that he should capitulate to that unless this really is some kind of game-over moment. As I understand it, the only justification for Boris breaking the law here would be if he were forced to accept a long extension. A January extension is not long enough to justify a prime minister acting illegally in my view.

Am I missing something here?

In Negative

8th September 2019 at 12:30 pm

Someone might need to help me out here as I’m a bit confused.

So I’m with you in a lot of this. Our parliament are a shower of shits, no argument from me there and what they have done is pretty dispicable. With you in all of that. The right thing to do was to hold a GE to get approval for the parliamentary bill the moment it became law. I’m with you on all of that.

My confusion comes with your approval that Boris should ignore a parliamentary law. Is the problem that the delay forced on him may be longer than January? That there will be a short delay does not seem to me to be a huge issue – it may even be helpful. Furthermore, I think Boris is rightly bound to obey the law. In this sense, Boris appears to me to have been politically outmanoeuvred and it is right that he should capitulate to that unless this really is some kind of game-over moment. As I understand it, the only justification for Boris breaking the law here would be if he were forced to accept a long extension. A January extension is not long enough to justify a prime minister acting illegally in my view.

Am I missing something here?

Dominic Straiton

8th September 2019 at 12:21 pm

As democracy seems to be over why dont we settle Brexit in the old fashioned way. Maybe at Townton, Naseby or perhaps Hampstead Heath.

ZENOBIA PALMYRA

8th September 2019 at 2:13 pm

Brexit has indeed met its Waterloo!

Winston Stanley

8th September 2019 at 5:30 pm

You mean Peterloo.

Andrew Needham

9th September 2019 at 9:01 am

You fail to understand democracy, it seems. To you democracy is all about your side being righteous and for the greater good, how many Governments have put this argument forward, only to rule with an iron fist. To me democracy is we vote, there is a winner and a loser. The winner gets to make the rules, but now a bunch of self proclaimed mind readers say the leave voters didn’t know what they voted for. If that is so (then let’s have a general election and see if it changes anything), but these self proclaimed mind readers rejected it and now even with the bill about to pass, they say no, even after they said they would. David Cameron said before the referendum that we would leave the customs union. He was big enough to resign, because how can a remain person bargain to leave.

Alan Watson

8th September 2019 at 11:10 pm

There has not been any democracy anywhere near Hampstead Heath or Camden for many years now.

Warren Alexander

8th September 2019 at 12:04 pm

Since the referendum and the campaign to overturn the result, I have been shocked (although perhaps I shouldn’t have been) how friends of mine who are staunch remainers tell me that they are not at all concerned about issues of democracy and that staying in the EU over-rides any democratic decision of the people. Furthermore, they are entirely happy that decision-making in the EU is almost entirely devoid of any democratic input.

Stuart Mack

8th September 2019 at 1:15 pm

I read this article recently that makes the same point: https://www.thefullbrexit.com/student-perspective
It’s a selfish attitude. It may be because they were brought up in the 80’s and 90’s and were influenced by Thatcherite individualism of do what’s important for me and sod everyone else. Or, they are so cut-off from the rest of society, viewing ordinary working people as thick plebs. Or, they are ignorant of history and the long fight for democracy and the sacrifices that were made to achieve it.

A Game

8th September 2019 at 9:58 pm

No, its flaunting their amorality.

Bob Loblaw

9th September 2019 at 1:02 am

An interesting article, but other than a nebulous mention of “sovereignty” doesn’t really give compelling reason for their position. It’s mostly a strawman argument painting remainers as sneering toffs. There are plenty of well-reasoned working class remainders too. I’ve met a lot of them.

Jim Lawrie

8th September 2019 at 1:43 pm

I don’t know about yourself Warren, but my experience of threats in the last week suggests that gaoling Boris is representative of quite a few Remainers. But happily, not all.

ZENOBIA PALMYRA

8th September 2019 at 2:03 pm

In jail, Boris might learn some humility (I repeat, might)!

Jim Lawrie

8th September 2019 at 2:58 pm

Zenobia subjecting oneself to a General Election is humility, and bravery, incarnate. With the prospect of humiliation at the end.
Seizing and clutching onto power by refusing a General Election smacks of arrogance and smells of fear.

Michael Lynch

8th September 2019 at 7:28 pm

Spot on, Jim. Boris is the Democrat in this situation. Don’t know if you watched McDonnell on Andrew Marr this morning – I was sick to my stomach listening to his tripe.

Jim Lawrie

9th September 2019 at 1:34 am

Michael Lynch I just watched McDonnell on Andrew Marr.
He holds himself so rigid for fear of his body language giving him away that he keeps forgetting to move his lips. He’s like something out of a Bird and Fortune spoof.